Oh the terror of appearing on stage! So thought ten Dark Angels when script writer, director, producer and star of the show John Simmons told us he needed a ‘choir’ to help him finish his ‘Forever Young’ talk at the Globe in November. Hearts in our mouths, we arrived 15 minutes early, fortified by a …more

On 24 November, Faber & Faber kindly played host to a 26 event for a second time. It was nearly a year since we listened to Simon Armitage’s astonishing poetry reading in the same venue. Appropriate really, given that the evening was something of a masterclass on how to get published. If more inspiration were …more

Michael Wolff at 26: “I’ve been sacked twelve times. I’m very used to it.” One of the things Wally Olins told me about Michael Wolff was how much fun they had befuddling clients about their roles on a project. In meetings, the clients would get confused about who was doing what: “I thought he was …more

What should we get paid for our writing? Can we put a price on our words? Apart from pornography, what’s the best-paid type of writing? These questions and more were addressed at 26’s ‘Wordsworth’ event held at Interbrand on 26 October. As a follow up, we agreed to run an online anonymous survey for writers …more

How can pictures tell a story without words? How can words grab attention without pictures? This age-old debate was given new life in Bristol on 7 June when John Simmons and acclaimed photographer Martin Parr stepped up to the mic – for the West of England Design Forum. What emerged were two very different approaches …more

On Saturday 26 May, 26-ers George Craigie and Jamie Jauncey helped entertain passers-by in Aberdeen with an illustrated talk on the theme ‘Is a picture really worth 1000 words’? Part of the Six Cities Design Festival, the talk took place in The Monkey Puzzle Pavilion, a temporary structure made of plywood at the end of …more

Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? Well, no. But we did hold a rather splendid gathering in the bowels of Shakespeare’s Globe to celebrate the publication of ‘The Bard & Co: Shakespeare’s Role In …more

With a year-long jaunt coming to a close, and nearly all points of the Isle covered, what better place for all the differing, meandering byways of ‘Common Ground’ to meet but in Oxford? So after various journeys of unpredictable timing from Paddington, we arrived at the world headquarters of the globe-bestriding media megabrand that is …more

Our intrepid reporter Rishi Dastidar does his best to remember what happened at the 26 Christmas Party 2006. Take one less than cold December night, add one gloriously old school pub in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia (complete with dangerously comfortable sofas), drizzle in some Christmas stickers, throw in some exquisite calligraphy on name labels, add free …more

A look back at Rishi Dastidar’s Arts Council-sponsored Common Ground event, by Justina Hart. We met, appropriately enough, in the Met Bar above Baker Street station on Saturday 2 December 2006, on the promise of a poignant but pointless journey to the end of the Metropolitan line and back, to celebrate Rishi Dastidar’s Common Groundchapter about Julian Barnes’s Metroland. …more

Arriving early at Colchester’s Arts Centre, we immediately suspected someone had pulled a fast one. The cabbie dropped us at a dark church and even darker churchyard on a cold, misty evening and we wondered if he hadn’t liked the look of us. However, once the lights came on, the bar opened and the audience …more

It was billed as a candlelit evening in Milton’s Cottage, the tiny bolt hole in Chalfont St Giles where he spent the years that the Great Plague infested London. In the end, it was fluorescent lights in the village hall over the road. Heath & Safety decreed that there were too many people for the …more

The café at Falmouth’s magnificent, modern Maritime Museum was filling up with tanned, greying women and men, with taut, toned muscles. They stood with their feet slightly apart as if they expected the ground to tilt at any moment. These were people who were clearly not at home on a floor that doesn’t sway with …more

To celebrate our third birthday, we held a shindig at the Truman Brewery in London’s Brick Lane. As 26ers met and mingled, they’d occasionally glance over their shoulders at the handsome typographic mural by Pentagram’s Domenic Lippa. This was made up of sayings with a twist provided by our own number. As our contribution to …more

26 held a special event with Dominic Dromgoole, Patrick Spottiswoode, Peter Kyle, Yolanda Vazquez and John Simmons at the Globe Theatre on 31 August 2006. The main purpose was to galvanise into action at least some of the twenty-eight 26 members who have each been linked with one of Shakespeare’s original company of actors and …more

Paul Burke should start the ‘Shut Up and Get On With It School of Writing’. He got into advertising from school after telephoning Abbott Mead Vickers and asking to speak to Mr Abbott about a job as a writer. He got a job as a van driver and took it from there. Nobody told him …more

John Simmons is a founder-director of 26, and widely regarded as the person who set the current tone for tone of voice. His three books have been described as ‘manifestos for every writer in business who wants to be a better writer’. So when Cyan Books decided to republish ‘We, Me, Them & It’ and …more

What a ride. ‘From Here To Here’ was our most ambitious project to date, and has given 26 more profile and kudos than ever. The fantastic show at the London College of Communication has just come down, but the installation at Embankment station, featuring illustrated excerpts of writing from the book, will be in place …more